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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
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March 15th,
2007 - Marine Defends Haditha Decisions |
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Marine Defends Haditha
Decisions In Exclusive Interview, Wuterich Tells 60 Minutes He's Sorry It
Happened But He Would Do It Again CBS News March 15, 2007 New York - He's sorry that
civilians, including women and children, died when he and his men reacted to
an attack that killed a comrade in Haditha, but Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich
says today he would make the same decision that caused their deaths. Wuterich is charged with
killing 18 civilians. He led four other Marines also charged with murder. His
interview with Scott Pelley, the first time any of them has spoken publicly
about that day, is part of a report to be broadcast on 60 Minutes Sunday,
March 18 at 7 p.m. ET. "There is nothing that
I can possibly say to make up or make well the deaths of those women and
children, and I am absolutely sorry it happened that day," says
Wuterich. Despite the outcome, Wuterich insists it was the right decision.
"What I did that day, the decision that I made, I would make those
decisions again today," he tells Pelley. "Those are decisions that
I made in a combat situation and I believe I had to make those
decisions." One of those decisions,
which Wuterich admits to in the interview, was shooting five unarmed Iraqi
men in their backs. Wuterich says the men were running from a car that had
appeared on the scene at about the same time their comrade was killed by a
roadside bomb. Wuterich says their killing was justified; he says he
identified them as having hostile intent toward the Marines. Wuterich also
maintains that the Iraqi men disobeyed the orders of one of his squad members
and that the Iraqis should have known what to do. "Normally the Iraqis
know the drill ... if something happens ... get down, hands up ... They
started to take off, so I shot at them," Wuterich says. Other Marines
have told investigators that the Iraqis appeared to be following orders and
were not fleeing. Pelley asks Wuterich how running away from the scene could
have constituted hostile intent. He replies that he thought
they may have detonated the roadside bomb. He adds, "But also at the
same time, there were military-aged males that were inside that car. The only
vehicle, the only thing that was out, that was Iraqi, was them. They were 100
meters away from that IED. Those are the things that went through my mind
before I pulled the trigger. That was positive identification," Wuterich
tells Pelley. Another decision Wuterich
made that day was to lead an attack on two houses. That attack killed three
women and six children. The Marines attacked the first house with the
permission of a superior officer because they thought two or three shots were
fired at them from it. Wuterich says the Marines tossed a grenade into a room
in the dwelling before determining who was inside. They pressed the attack
with a charge through the door and gunshots to kill any survivors. According
to Wuterich, this was the best way to clear a house safely, and he has no
compunction about doing it. "You can't hesitate to make a decision.
Hesitation equals being killed, either yourself or your men ... That's what
we do. That's how our training goes." Wuterich says he saw that
the attack on the first house had killed women and children. But he did not
stop the assault, because he says he saw a back door open in the house and
assumed the sniper had gone through it to the next house. "My
responsibility as a squad leader is to make sure that none of the rest of my
guys died... and at that point we were still on the assault, so no, I don’t
believe [I should have stopped the attack], he tells Pelley. "We went through that
house much the same, prepping the rooms with grenades, going in there, and
eliminating the threat and engaging the targets," says Wuterich. In the
second house, a man, two women and four children who ranged in age from 2 to
14, died. "Did we know that civilians were in there? No. It would have
been one thing if we went in those rooms and looked at everyone and shot
them," Wuterich tells Pelley. "We cleared these houses the way they
were supposed to be cleared." External link: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/15/60minutes/main2574973.shtml |